The Last ShipPrincess of Wales TheatreRunning until March 24RATING: **1/2 (2.5 out of four)

Sting’s ship has sailed.

His childhood-inspired musical The Last Ship, that is, which has arrived at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre for its Canadian premiere and will run until March 24.

And after a rocky voyage on Broadway in 2014 where it closed early, it’s not exactly smooth sailing for the musical about the ‘80s-era demise of the shipbuilding industry in Sting’s Northern England hometown of Wallsend, with a new book written by director Lorne Campbell — the artistic director of Northern Stage in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

There are rough seas maneuvering through the slow-moving story and hard-to-understand Geordie dialect, and some of the songs are too strident for their own good — like the foot-stomping, hand-clapping Show Some Respect in the second act.

But there’s still plenty to come aboard for, the least of which is the striking, state-of-the-art set design by the Tony Award-winning 59 Productions.

Projections on moving scrims make grey clouded skies come alive above the busy shipyard where fires and welding sparks mix among steel girders and scaffolding and the technology easily morphs that scene into a wood-paneled pub or a church with stained glass windows when required.

Then there’s the star attraction: Sting himself.

Oliver Savile and Sting perform in The Last ShipCylla von Tiedemann photo

The 67-year-old rock star, who knows his way around both a stage and a song, not only wrote the music and lyrics for The Last Ship (which includes previously released solo tunes like Island Of Souls and All This Time from 1991’s The Soul Cages and When We Danced from a 2014 greatest hits package) but takes on a supporting role as shipyard foreman Jackie White.

In fact, the strength of his older pop tunes amongst the weaker newer materials made me wish he’d included a few more here.

But Sting’s presence alone will the big draw as he gamely plays the go-between trying to negotiate with the shipyard’s 2000 workers and owner Freddy Newlands (Sean Kerns,) and the Margaret Thatcher-like trade minister Baroness Tynedale (Annie Grace,) whose failed to find a buyer for their latest vessel Utopia.

There’s definitely echoes here of Oshawa’s GM plant where Sting played a medley of songs with fellow castmates last week for the soon-to-be-laid-off auto workers.

Sting gets to belt out more than a few songs in his role — most significantly with strong company who gloriously open the first act with an a capella version of In The Morning and end it with the musical’s title track.

Sting also shines later in Act Two during the church-set duet So To Speak with Jackie Morrison, who plays his wife Peggy White — the two have a natural, easy chemistry.

It is, in fact, the women of The Last Ship who really stand out here in terms of the strongest voices.

The musical’s other couple of note is Meg Dawson (Frances McNamee) who lost her childhood sweetheart Gideon Fletcher (Oliver Savile) to the navy before he returns to the industrial town 17 years later.

McNamee soars in her big number If You Ever See Me Talking To A Sailor, hitting a huge note at the end, and in her big duet with Saville on When We Danced.

Also memorable is Sophie Reid as Ellen Dawson who makes the most of her solo on All This Time.

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